Breathing Room
by Artemis1000
Summary: A night's break from Jedi training gives Finn and Rey time to talk about their fears.


Notes: For Chocolate Box Exchange.

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 **Breathing Room**

"Come on, Finn! Hurry up! It's just the two of us tonight!"

Finn's heart skipped a beat at the pure happiness gleaming in Rey's eyes, and he forgot all about his meditation. No, not just her eyes, her entire face glowed with this giddy enthusiasm he had only seen her show during their short time together on the Millennium Falcon.

He had only known her to look at him like this when she was happy about a daring escape, or figuring out a clever solution to save the ship and the day. Now she was looking at him like this again, but there was only him and her, and the promise of time spent together. _Just the two of them_.

She looked radiant, standing in her drab and practical grey clothes in the humble little stone shack they shared.

There had never been any question in his mind that he would follow Rey once he had recovered. She was the one for whom he had walked back into his nightmare when he only wanted to run to the farthest edges of the galaxy. Finn needed to see with his own eyes that she was alive and unharmed after their battle with Kylo Ren.

He had counted on a visit to Ahch-To. Before he could decide what to do with his life now that it was his own, he would reunite with Rey and find out if she wanted to share it with him.

That had been two months ago. What Finn had not counted on was Luke Skywalker taking one look at him, and telling him he would be joining Rey in training.

Maybe they both needed a night off.

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They took the tiny shuttle in which Finn had arrived and flew to a space station so unimportant it didn't even have a name, just a designation. Finn didn't care, and going by the bounce in Rey's steps, neither did she.

The mining station didn't have much, but it had a cantina with a terrible live band, an off-key singer and what was bound to be the best drink Finn had had since Takodana. Mind you, apart from Resistance homebrew it was also his first drink since Takodana.

Rey got a bright yellow, fizzy drink, and laughed as she blew more bubbles into it with her straw. "We had places like this on Jakku, though not as nice as this one, but I couldn't ever afford to go."

"And we didn't have them at all," Finn chimed in, watching the patrons with the same wary curiosity as Rey, "Stormtroopers weren't supposed to have time off, let alone have fun."

They were silent for a while, broken when Rey quietly asked, "do you ever miss it?"

Under the table Finn squeezed Rey's hand, and she eagerly interlaced their fingers. She held on too tight, and he realized that she was more unsettled than he had realized. Of course, it occurred to him, she had been on Ahch-To longer than him. The cantina had to be a shock after five months in isolation, and she'd never been a social person anyway.

"Life was more predictable when you knew the rules," he admitted, using his other hand to nudge his glass around. He hadn't drunk from it yet. "I couldn't give it to them, but I knew what they expected from me, and what the price of failure would be." A cold shiver ran down his spine as he thought of that price. Total annihilation of your self in reconditioning, that was the price for failure in the Stormtrooper Program.

Finn had watched Kylo Ren stab his own father in the heart. He understood the price of failure as a Jedi was higher – it would be paid by the ones who died at your hands.

"I know." Rey blew more bubbles into her drink, and once she was satisfied she slurped noisily at her straw. "I didn't have to…" She trailed off, brows furrowing. "I didn't have anyone to disappoint, but I didn't have anyone at all on Jakku," she finished, voice very small and thoughtful.

"But you survived out there, all by yourself."

She nodded. Her hand felt cold and clammy in his. "I had to. I had to wait for my family's return."

Finn swallowed hard, he had a lot to say about little Rey being left on Jakku, but this wasn't the time to get indignant on her behalf. "You've got one now."

She looked at him with large eyes, startled at first, and then with ever growing warmth in her eyes. "I know," Rey whispered, "I've got you now."

She leaned closer, and Finn could feel the mood between them shift. He met her halfway in a sweet, lingering kiss that first made butterflies flutter in his belly, and then made his toes curl. Rey always had that effect on him.

They were both smiling when they pulled back, and Rey's cheeks sported a pink tinge. It took Finn a while to remember what they had been talking about. "You've got me," he vowed, "but you've got Master Luke, too, and all the people in the Resistance, if you want them."

Rey nodded, but it must have been the wrong thing to say, for she was turning solemn again. "What if I can't do it? I nearly Fell when I fought Ren, if it hadn't been for that chasm opening up…"

Finn took a sip from his drink, and grimaced. It tasted worse than the homebrew. "When I thought the First Order would catch up to us I wanted to run. It was all I could think of, I couldn't think past my own fear. But then I saw Ren carry you away, and I knew that I was more scared of losing you than of facing them." Finn gave her a smile. "That day I learned that you're stronger than you know when it truly matters."

Her nod was more decisive this time, which Finn took as a small victory. "Just as long as you don't run from me ever again… if you run, you take me with you!"

They laughed together, though they knew neither of them could run just yet. Snoke would chase them to the farthest reaches of the galaxy, and not stop until they were dead or his slaves. Rey, Finn knew, wouldn't run anyway. She had yearned too long for a family to give it up now that she had forged her own, small though it was.

A commotion at the other end of the bar caught Finn's attention, just in time for him to see the first blows being exchanged, moments later already followed by blaster shots, while the terrified cantina owner was howling for them to stop, and the patrons were trying to find refuge under the tables.

"Uh… I think…" Rey slipped off her bar stool. "Shouldn't we…? Master Luke said the Jedi used to keep the peace. They wouldn't have stood by while some thugs terrorize a cantina."

Finn chewed on his bottom lip. "I'm not sure this is what he had in mind when he told us to keep a low profile. But they are trashing the poor guy's cantina pretty badly." He looked at Rey, gripping her staff, and patted his own blaster. He nodded decisively. "As long as we use no lightsabers we should be okay."

"Good point. No lightsabers, but everything else is fair game!"

No, he was certain this was not what Luke had had in mind, Finn thought as he waded into the fray with Rey.

"If Master Luke asks, we're filing it under _unconventional training exercises_ , alright?" he said, and Rey rewarded him with another dazzling smile.

 _The End_


End file.
